Nearly all of Donbass ‘already taken by Russia’ – Trump

US President Donald Trump has said Russia and Ukraine should freeze the current conflict front line in Donbass, noting that Moscow controls nearly all of the region anyway.

Trump made the remark after speaking with Russian President Vladimir Putin by phone on Thursday and meeting with Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky the next day at the White House.

“We think what they should do is just stop at the lines where they are. The rest is very tough to negotiate,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday evening. “They should stop right now at the battle lines, go home, stop killing people, and be done,” he added.

Asked about Donbass, Trump said, “Let it be cut the way it is. I think 78% of the land is already taken by Russia. You leave it the way it is right now. They can negotiate something later on.”

In 2014, the Donbass regions of Donetsk and Lugansk declared independence and voted to break away from Ukraine following the Western-backed coup in Kiev earlier that year. Under the Minsk Agreements, Kiev was bound to protect the status of Russian language and grant both regions more autonomy. Instead it backed an ethnic war in Donbass that, according to the International Crisis Group, left 14,000 people dead in eight years.

In September 2022, both regions held referendums to join Russia, which Kiev refuses to recognize. 

The chief of Russia’s General Staff, Valery Gerasimov, said in August that Ukrainian troops held around 20% of the Donetsk People’s Republic and less than 1% of the Lugansk People’s Republic.

Putin has said that for a ceasefire to work, Ukrainian forces must withdraw from all of Donbass. He also listed recognition of Russia’s new borders as one of the conditions for a lasting peace.

Zelensky has backed Trump’s call for an immediate ceasefire but refused to hand over any “additional” territory to Russia.

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